(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data broadcast program producing apparatus.
(2) Description of Related Art
A conventional data broadcast program producing apparatus holds a plurality of templates. When receiving a piece of material data, the data broadcast program producing apparatus immediately combines the piece of material data and a template corresponding to a type of the received piece of material data. Here, a data broadcast program is a program that is broadcasted as a collection of image data, bitmapped data, and a variety of information described in BML (Broadcast Markup Language) such as exchange rate, weather, stock price, and news.
For instance, when the type of material data is exchange rate, the piece of material data shows the exchange rates of yen to dollar and yen to euro.
On the other hand, a template which is to be combined with the piece of material data includes rectangular frames which show the type of the material data, for example, xe2x80x9cexchange ratexe2x80x9d and fixed expressions such as xe2x80x9c◯:◯xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9c◯ yen on a dollarxe2x80x9d, and xe2x80x9c◯ yen on an euroxe2x80x9d that are to be combined with the contents of the piece of material data. The contents of piece of material data, for example, xe2x80x9c14:00xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9c104.75 yen on a dollarxe2x80x9d, and xe2x80x9c98.56 yen on an euroxe2x80x9d are written in this template to produce a data broadcast program.
However, when a piece of material data is received, the conventional data broadcast program producing apparatus immediately combines the piece of material data with a fixed template corresponding to the type of the piece of material data and lacks flexibility in producing a data broadcast program.
Also, if a piece of material data of the same type is repeatedly updated and received at short time intervals such as every thirty seconds, the data broadcast program producing apparatus performs the combining of the material data and the corresponding template repeatedly. However, it takes time for a receiver that has received such a data broadcast program to display the data broadcast program, so a problem such as a screen flicker occurs.
Furthermore, when the type of the piece of material data is image data, the conventional data broadcast program producing apparatus has only one size of frame for image data regardless of a variety of sizes of the image data. Therefore, if the piece of image data is perpendicularly or horizontally long or wide, the piece of image data may not be able to be combined with the template appropriately.
Concerning with above inconvenience, the first object of the present invention is to provide a data broadcast program producing apparatus that can decide a timing of a combining operation of at least one piece of material data and a template and also can combine a plurality of types of material data with a template.
The second object of the present invention is to provide a data broadcast program producing apparatus that can easily combine a piece of image data as material data with a template in consideration of a size of the piece of image data.
These objects are achieved by a data broadcast program producing apparatus including: a template storage unit for storing a plurality of templates; a material data receiving unit for receiving at least one piece of material data for a data broadcast program, each piece of material data being accompanied by a plurality of pieces of attribute information; a combining rule storage unit for storing a plurality of combining rules, each combining rule associating a combining condition with one of the plurality of templates stored in the template storage unit; a judging unit for judging whether a combining condition of any of the plurality of combining rules is met, based on a combination of at least two pieces of attribute information accompanying the at least one piece of material data received by the material data receiving unit; and a combining unit for combining, when the judging unit judges that the combining condition is met, the at least one piece of material data with a template associated with the combining condition, in accordance with the combining rule.
With this construction, a data broadcast program can be produced by combining a variety of material data with a template according to one of a variety of combining rules.
Here, the plurality of pieces of attribute information accompanying each piece of material data may include at least two out of (a) a type of the piece of material data, (b) a version number of the piece of material data, and (c) a time at which the piece of material data has been received, wherein each combining rule stored in the combining rule storage unit (a) indicates a combining condition whose first criterion is a type of the piece of material data and (b) specifies a template which is to be combined with the piece of material data.
With this construction, according to one of combining rules in which the plurality of pieces of attribute information of each piece of material data are criteria for judging whether a condition of the combining rule is met, a data broadcast program can be produced by combining at least one piece of material data with a specified template.
Here, the combining condition may specify a combination of a plurality of different types of pieces of material data.
With this construction, a plurality of types of material data can be combined with a template.
Here, the combining condition can be that the plurality of different types of pieces of material data has a same version number.
This construction prevents inconsistency of contents between a plurality of pieces of material data.
Here, the judging unit may have a timer, and the combining condition is a predetermined time of day.
With this construction, the latest information of a plurality of types of material data can be combined at an effective time.
Here, the combining condition may be that when a new piece of material data is received, a predetermined period has passed after any piece of material data was received.
This construction prevents inconvenience on display control of a receiver that receives the data broadcast program even when the material data is repeatedly updated.
Here, the combining condition may be that either of a version number or a received time shows that a predetermined type of a new piece of material data has been received by the material data receiving unit while checking that a piece of material data has been received at predetermined intervals.
With this construction, combining of the piece of material data and a template can be performed at an appropriate timing.
The second object of the present invention is achieved by the plurality of templates including templates that each hold an image frame having a different width-to-height ratio, wherein when the piece of material data is image data, the image data is further accompanied by a piece of attribute information showing a width and a height of the image data, wherein when the piece of material data is image data, the combining condition is that a width-to-height ratio of the image data is a predetermined value, and wherein the judging unit calculates the width-to-height ratio of the image data from the piece of attribute information showing the width and the height of the image data to judge whether a combining condition of any of the combining rules is met.
This construction enables to put a wide or long piece of image data into an image frame.
Here, the combining unit may include: an image frame ratio calculating unit for calculating a width-to-height ratio of an image frame of the template associated with the combining condition in the combining rule when the combining condition is that a width-to-height ratio of the image data is in a predetermined range; a width-to-height ratio judging unit for judging whether the width-to-height ratio of the image data calculated by the judging unit is same as the width-to-height ratio of the image frame; and an image data adjusting/combining unit for, (a) when the width-to-height ratio of the image data is the same as the width-to-height ratio of the image frame, combining of image data with the template and,(b) when the width-to-height ratio of the image data is different from the width-to-height ratio of the image frame, adjusting a size of the image data by either increasing or decreasing one of the width and the height of the image data so that the width-to-height ratio of the image data becomes same as the width-to-height ratio of the image frame and combining of image data with the template.
This construction can adjust a size of the piece of image data to put into an image frame.
These objects of the present invention are also achieved by a computer program for a data broadcast program producing apparatus including: a template storage unit for storing a plurality of templates; and a combining rule storage unit for storing a plurality of combining rules that associate combining conditions with templates stored in the template storage unit, the computer program including: a material data receiving step for receiving at least one piece of material data for a data broadcast program, each piece of material data being accompanied by a plurality of pieces of attribute information; a judging step for judging whether a combining condition of any of the plurality of combining rules is met, based on a combination of at least two pieces of attribute information accompanying the at least one piece of material data received by the material data receiving step; and a combining step for combining, when the judging step judges that the combining condition is met, the at least one piece of material data with a template associated with the combining condition, in accordance with the combining rule.
When this program is applied to a data broadcast program producing apparatus, a variety of material data can be combined with a template.
Moreover, these objects of the present invention are achieved by a computer-readable recording medium storing a computer program for a data broadcast program producing apparatus including: a template storage unit for storing a plurality of templates; and a combining rule storage unit for storing a plurality of combining rules that associate combining conditions with templates stored in the template storage unit, the computer program including: a material data receiving step for receiving at least one piece of material data for a data broadcast program, each piece of material data being accompanied by a plurality of pieces of attribute information; a judging step for judging whether a combining condition of any of the plurality of combining rules is met, based on a combination of at least two pieces of attribute information accompanying the at least one piece of material data received by the material data receiving step; and a combining step for combining, when the judging step judges that the combining condition is met, the at least one piece of material data with a template associated with the combining condition, in accordance with the combining rule.
With this construction, when the program is applied to a data broadcast program producing apparatus that only can combine a definite combination of one piece of material data to one template, a variety of material data can be combined with a template.